The Russell Brunson Show - Moving From A Mass Movement To Your Own Universe

Episode Date: June 1, 2018

What I learned from WWF, Disney, and Marvel about creating your own universe, so you can better serve your customers. On this episode Russell talks about legends in marketing and wrestling that he has surpassed. He also explains why it is important to create a universe inside your company. Here are some super cool things you will hear in today's episode: Why Russell has always looked up to both Dan Kennedy and Dan Gable, and why he feels like he has actually surpassed them. What it means to create a universe in your company and how some of Russell's followers have been able to do it. And why you should be thinking about how to create a universe of your own for people to follow and get excited about. So listen here to find out how Russell has surpassed a few legends and how he's been able to build his own universe inside of Clickfunnels. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/moving-from-a-mass-movement-to-your-own-universe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With TD Direct Investing, new and existing clients could get 1% cash back. Great! That's 1% closer to being part of the 1%. Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31, 2025. Visit td.com slash dioffer to learn more. Hey, what's up everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Tonight on the Marketing Secrets Podcast, I want to talk to you about creating your very own universe. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're spending money from our own pockets. is this, how are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital,

we're spending money from our own pockets. How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Hey everyone, I'm not sure if you listened to yesterday's podcast, but I recorded that like five minutes ago, and I'm still walking down the track, and just got excited about another idea that I want to share with you. So here we are. Alright, so today when I was at my kids' field day all day, boiling in the sun, I was listening to Dan Kennedy. And man, I just love listening to Dan Kennedy's stuff.

Of all of the marketing, of all the people that I study, he's the one I most consistently go back to. So take that for what it's worth. I don't know why. I think he is most entertaining. He always stimulates my brain with these new ideas and thoughts and beliefs and patterns. And, um, anyway, it's, it's really, really cool. So, um, one thing, Oh, one thing that's interesting. So this is kind of tangent. So hope you don't mind. Um, it's funny. So you know, when you learn about legends and it's like, there's this legend, you're like, oh my gosh, this person's amazing.

I have to give this Dan Cam this huge, like, you know, talk to how great he is and I'm going to kind of tear him down accidentally. But I don't mean to, he's still the man. But it's so funny. Like, for example, in the wrestling world, the greatest wrestler, you know, the legend is Dan Gable. He's like the Michael Jordan of our sport, right? Went through high school and college, didn't lose any match. His last match his senior

year in college, and then he lost it. And then, um, he became so obsessed with that. He started training again and ended up like three years later winning a gold medal in the Olympics. And, uh, what's crazy about it is that not a single person scored on him in the Olympics. In fact, uh, before going to the Olympics, the Russians were like, we're going to create an athlete specifically designed to beat Dan Gable, and they just wanted to beat the Americans so bad. So that was the whole goal of the Russian team was let's beat Dan Gable, which is crazy. And as legend goes, Dan would work out for about seven hours a day here in the States.

Then he had to go to bed at night. And then he knew, though, as he was going to bed at night, that the sun was rising in the Soviet Union. He knew the Russians were training, and he couldn't handle that. And so he'd wake up at night, and he'd go out and run at night because he didn't want to be laying on his back sleeping while the Russians were training, which is like so many cool metaphors, right? So Dan is the man. He is the legend. He is like, he is wrestling, right?

And what's interesting now is you fast forward and, and, and I'm actually gonna give Dan credit for this. So Dan brought his style of wrestling to, um, Iowa, the Hawkeyes made Hawkeyes the dominant team forever. And like everybody rose up to the Hawkeye level. Um, and like at wrestling today was built off of the shoulders of dan dan gable and um anyways it's it's pretty cool to watch but the other day i went back and i watched some of dan gable's wrestling matches because now we have youtube and like everything's

archived it's so cool i'm watching dan gable's wrestling match and again like the legend like the michael jordan of wrestling like the greatest of all time. And I'm watching these matches. In fact, I watched the match he lost his senior year in college. And watching this match, I'm like, this feels like a high school JV wrestling match. Like the level that we compete at today as a country is insane, right? It's way better. Like most people nowadays would go back and would compete against gable and they would destroy him at his prime um but he was the legend right and he pushed the sport forward

and now you look at you know fast forward however many 40 years later and because of his influence this whole thing's grown but like if you look at him like pound for pound versus the dudes who went ncaa now pound for pound like they would destroy gable wouldn't even be close um and so i had i tell you the story because i had this funny thing like when i was learning the public speaking world like i studied kennedy right like kennedy i used to hear these stories i haven't got these public or peter low events would be 20 000 people in the stadiums they'd be selling stuff and like and like that's where i got my inspiration that's where i started studying and learning and like where i mastered stage presenting because i wanted to be like dan kennedy and which is like insane right and. And I studied this thing, studied him forever.

And I studied all the people he, he trained. Like that's my whole, the foundation of where the perfect webinar and the expert secrets book and all this stuff that he's came, comes from. Right. Um, and fast forward till, um, what was it? Three or four months ago when I'm speaking at Grant Cardone 10 X event, there's 9,000 people in the room. And I remember thinking, I i remember thinking i bet this is what it was like when kennedy spoke of the old peter lowe events when there's 20 or 30 000 people in the stadium

i was like oh can you imagine like they they would do that um you know most like once a month around different parts of the country and they were on these circuits and they were speaking i was like oh he must have made so much money right we. We do. I, I did my pitch, make $3 million, 90 minutes. And I'm just like, Oh, like, like I'm experiencing a little bit of what Dan Kennedy experienced. Right. Like, and then what's crazy. So crazy. So I'm listening to him today in his training course. And, um, he's talking about Peter Low events again. And I was just like, boom, pulled back like a decade ago. And I and i first learning about stage presenting and all this stuff right and what was crazy is he's telling this um uh is he's uh telling these stories and he was talking about how much money he would make at a peter lobe and he said we have 20 000 people in the room and he's that much i'm gonna make he's like i would average from a typical stage

presentation in that room i'd walk away with $100,000 in my pocket. And I was like, what? Which means he'd make $200,000, $250,000 or so. He'd get half of it. That's the way the speaking world works. He'd walk out with $100,000 and take that home every single time. He's like, yeah, I'd speak twice a week, sometimes, you know, at least once a month. And, you know, I was making over a million bucks a year as a speaker. And I was what what like this comes back to my dan gable i'm like dan gable if i would have lived when you lived as good as i was today i could have beat you at a wrestling match i could have beat dan gable the legend like oh how crazy is that and i'm looking at this i'm like oh my gosh like i've literally beat uh the dan gable of the marketing where I beat Dan Kennedy. Like I did

more in 90 minutes than he did an entire year at the Peter Lowe events, speaking at 20,000 person rooms multiple times throughout the year. And, um, anyway, it just blew my mind. So that's one of those weird things, but you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan Kennedy's influence on me, and then like his influence on other speakers that I learned from like this whole thing, like the heat evolved the entire thing, um, to, to, uh, to put it where it's at today. But I bet you right now, especially after going back and looking at recently Dan's old presentations and old pitches, like my guess is any of you guys who master the perfect webinar could outsell Dan and without even blinking. Um, in fact, I would bet a lot of money on that. Um, and so it's just, it's, it's, it's fascinating. So,

all right. I don't know why I went on that rant for the last six and a half minutes, but I thought it was interesting. So there you go. All right. So let me praise Dan again now. Cause he is the man. And I'm talking about Dan Gable. Cause in case he listens to this someday and he's like, Russell, you're a punk. Like, no, Dan, you are the man. Like you. Yeah. So please all bow to the legend, Dan Gable. You are the man. I love you. All right. So, and same thing with Dan Kennedy. Um, so I'm going to talk about Kennedy though, because, um, God, the guy just, like I said, of all the people I study, it always comes back to him. He's the one I study and learn from. And like, I just, I love it. So, um, in the course I was

going through today, which is crazy, five hours of, of being out in the sun on one and a half times speed. Cause I got like what? Eight hours of Kennedy smushed in my brain today, which was really, really fun. Um, and a bunch of cool things wrapped around that. Like I would, I could share, I can do days worth of podcasts of the cool stuff I learned. But, um, this is one that was really, really fascinating. So he was talking about, um, companies and he spent a lot of time talking about Disney, um, and about their enterprise and how Disney works, right? How it was created, how it was crafted, how, how they build these universes inside. There's characters and there's, there's, there's, um, storylines and there's all these things are happening inside of the context

of this, um, this universe that Disney's created, right? They start talking about, um, Jim McMahon and the WWF and talking about this, this universe. And there's, um, you know, opponents and people and fans and, and merchandise. And they, he built this entire universe, right? Um, where there's good guys, there's bad guys and people want to like live and experience this universe. And then, um, uh, I started thinking about like WWF or excuse me, WWF, like, uh, the MMA. Right. And, um, uh, looking at that whole world, uh, that, uh, what's his name? Dana, Dana White created, right. And this is whole universe. And, um, uh,

he started talking about other ones, like about playboy and penthouse and hustler and like, anyway, so from, from all sorts of aspects of life, from, from Disney to, to pornography and filth and everything in between. Right. But talking about these companies that are so big and they talk, talking about the net worth of these individuals, right. Talk about, I can't remember the exact number, WDF dude, Jim McMahon or whatever his name is. Um, I think, I think WWF does like two or $3 billion a year. And McMahon's net worth is like $500 million or something crazy like that. Right. And so the reason why he's had so much success, the reason why they like these, these things live on beyond, beyond a product or anything is, is they created an entire universe. And, um, inside that universe,

there's all these things, right? There's characters, there's heroes, there's villains, there's, um, there's storylines, there's, there's all this stuff, there's merchandise, there's all these things that have been created. And then he said, you know, I've tried to create some portion of that here inside of GKIC. And I started again, started flashing back a decade ago when I first got into the GKIC world, which is Glazer Kennedy in a circle. And I started again, started flashing back a decade ago when I first, um, got into the GKIC world, which is Glazer Kennedy in a circle. And I joined, uh, Bill Glazer's mastermind and I started going to Dan Kennedy events. And, and I remember cause I would listen to all the CDs ahead of time and I would hear stories about these people. Right. Um, and, uh, and, uh, like the Ron,

the grands of the world and and Rory Phat, and Blake off the top of my head, all these guys, John Allinus, and like all these people who are using Dan Kennedy style marketing. I remember listening to these tapes, and I remember going to the events,

this universe, and I remember seeing these people I'd heard about. Like I heard them on CDs and tapes, and like Dan talking about them. I remember meeting them and shaking their hands, being so awkward and so nervous, wanting to get autographs, and then I remember going there and buying like Dan Kennedy t-shirts and courses. And like, and like I was in like this, this marketing nerdy

universe. Right. Um, I started thinking about that and I was like, Oh my gosh, like, um, without really knowing it completely. And I, and obviously I've known pieces of it, right? Like you've read expert secrets. I've talked about creating a mass movement and trying to, to, to take people. But I was like, if you really look at this, like, I feel like inside of the funnel hacker movement, it's like ClickFunnels, like we've created a universe. Right. And it's not just, um, like it's multifaceted. I remember like, um, when Todd and I were first brainstorming ClickFunnels, one thing he said, he's like, I want to build something that creates a whole ecosystem of other companies around it. And, uh, he said, you's like, I want to build something that creates a whole ecosystem of other companies around it.

And, uh, he said, you know, we kind of saw it's a little bit with Infusionsoft. They didn't really capitalize on that well, but he's like, I want people who full-time job are, are using ClickFunnels to help businesses. And, um, it's funny. We were, um, I was speaking to this government thing I'm going to do. You guys probably heard the episode, a couple of podcasts back. Um, but before that I was trying to figure out like how many, how many jobs have been created inside the ClickFunnels universe?

And I was like, you know what? As of today, I think we're at 60, I can't remember, 64, 65,000 members, right? Let's just say each of those entrepreneurs are using ClickFunnels and it becomes a job. So there's 65,000 jobs right there, right? But the average company has anywhere from three to like 30 employees. Let's say three, let's just say three. So conservative. So 60,000 turns into 180,000. Um, and then you

think about, um, um, uh, the, uh, like the, the other businesses that pop to, right? Like the agencies and the designers and the freelancers and the copywriters and the customer support, like all the other sub jobs that kind of go out. And then they look at like when somebody, uh, like when we sell t-shirts, there's the entire t-shirt company that, that there's all those jobs that are created. And then like when we're selling physical products and books and CDs and D like, um, like when I did, when I do a bestselling book, it's not just me that makes money on that. Right. Like, um, there are, there are the publishers, there are printers, there's, and we're trying to do the math. And like, uh, we got to about half a million jobs conservatively created because ClickFunnels is a thing.

Half a million jobs and probably more than that. That's what we were able to like draw lines to as we were doing our like low case estimates, right? So it's probably more than that. So in this universe, it's created half a million jobs, right? Inside of it, like there are heroes, right? I look at, you know, people I talk about all the time. Speakers of Throne Hacking Live, you know, the stories I tell on my podcast,

my Facebook lives and my different places, like if you will become heroes. And then there's like heroes and there's villains. I remember if you guys watched the book launch last year, we had like Julia Storian, who was like a hero. And then you got Dan Henry, who's like the villain. And there's fighting back and forth. And there's like, there's things happening. And there's like, it's just crazy. And, uh, you come to our events,

we've literally done two comic book animated video at the events. We've got t-shirts. Everybody buys. We have people right now who only will wear ClickFunnels clothes. We have our new swag store coming out where I have ClickFunnels socks and watches and hats and coats and like, um, merchandise. Um, uh, and, um, anyway, it's just, it's, it's fascinating because, um, I, I always tell people this and you've probably heard me talk about this. Like, like the hardest part is like seeing the pattern, right? But as soon as you see the pattern and you're aware of it, then it's like, Oh my gosh, now I see the pattern. Now I can amplify it. Right. So now that I, that I'm aware that my job is to create this universe. Now it's like, Oh wow. How do I actually create this

universe? How do I create superheroes? If you're at this universe, now it's like, oh wow, how do I actually create this universe? How do I create superheroes? If you're at the Fun Hacking Live event in Kalin, Poland, when she got on stage, she talked about how you have to give your customers an identity shift, right? You're shifting their identity and you bring them into your universe. They're coming to this universe where they have a whole new identity. And then what she said was so cool because they make millions of dollars off their swag drops.

Twice a month they do swag drops. They sell clothing. And she said, like, the swag drops, the clothing is like giving a cape to a new superhero. They've had an identity shift, and now you're giving them a superhero cape now that it's part of this person. I was like, oh, my gosh, that's what we're doing. We're bringing people into the universe. We're giving them an identity shift. We're giving them a cape.

We're giving them clothing. We're giving them a name, a place to belong. And it's just exciting. So anyway, I'm sharing that with you because today, as I was sitting there in the heat, listening to him talk about, um, these companies and the universes that have been created that people were plugging into, I was just like, that is, that's the new, the new vision. That's the pattern. Now that I'm aware of it now, it's like can i amplify what else can i do what did wwf do to build the universe what did marvel do what has dc done what has disneyland done like now it's time to start studying these companies that have built um um these universes

and try to replicate figure out what they're doing so that's like the next thing i'm gonna be geeking out on um so i just want to share with you guys, hopefully you guys can, can, um, start that journey with me. Um, it's been fun as, um, you know, one of the cool side of side benefits or side effects of me being in this role of, um, the chief cheerleader at ClickFunnels is I get to share these thoughts I have and then I get to test them out in our community. And then, um, I get to see people who are grabbing onto them and then like implementing the same stuff. It's, it's fascinating. Like when we started this whole funnel hacker movement and I was like, I think I'm onto something. It was like an inner circle meeting where I shared it and Brandon and Kaylin were there and, and Kaylin's company at the time, Brandon and Kaylin's company, it was, um, it was tool time fitness tools, like spelled T U E L E, which was, um,

Kaylin's maiden name. Um, and after talking about like, you know, with the funnel hacker movement, right. People need to self-identify with the cause and the movement. And she's like, Oh my gosh, no one's ever going to self-identify with my, with my last name. And so like on the flight home, she sat there, she's like, I had changed everything. And like, they had a million, a million dollar a year business, right? Like, and they still like, we have to change everything. Like if we're going to actually take this to the next level, we have to shift our branding, our name, everything, which is crazy.

I guarantee 99% of people, if they would have heard me in that same room, they're like, well, nope, my brand's good. People know who I am. Instead, they're like, no. If we want to get to the next level, we got to change everything. So they went and changed.

On the flight home that she renamed, she landed, she's boxing me. Like, Russell, it's Lady Boss Weight Loss. We're starting our movement. And I was like, what? You changed it? Like, yep, we're deleting everything. We're changing everything. We're starting our movement. And I was like, what? Like, you changed it? Like, yep, we're deleting everything. We're changing everything.

We're like, we're on. And boom. And like within weeks, the whole thing was moved over and it was launched and it was rocking and rolling, which is just insane. And so like, and then they're doing stuff and they're pushing the edge. Like they're teaching me stuff now. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. Right?

Um, I look at, uh, Alison Prince came into our world a little over a year ago. Some of you guys know she, at Fun Rocky Live this year. And same kind of thing. We're talking about these movements and talking about Lady Boss. And she's like, well, how do I create my own movement, my own universe, my own whatever you want to call it? And so she created one called the Because I Can Clan. And she's like, why do you call it that? I'm like, because I can.

Well, why do we do this? Well, because I can. And she's like, I want to create people who have the ability to do whatever they want in life because they can. I don't want people who can't do that. So she created this movement called the Because I Can Clan. And now she's like, I want to create people who have the ability to do whatever they want in life because they can't. Okay. I don't want people who like, they can't do that. So she created this movement called the because I can clan. And, and now she's doing it and she's taken this and she's building a whole community and she's, um, you know, made millions of dollars now inside of her business, but she's building a movement. People are having success with it. And it comes back to like this whole concept of like, because I can, and now she's doing this. And so I'm able to watch

what she's doing. I'm like, Oh, I'm getting on the scenes. I'm learning back from her because she's taking this idea. So in case you're wondering like, why does Russell share all this random stuff that he's thinking about? It's because I love it when I share it and I see you guys implement it as well because we all have different perspective on it, right?

Like when I hear universe, I think of one thing. You hear something else and the way I'm gonna implement is gonna be different than the way you guys implement. So please take this stuff and implement it. If you've got a business, if you don't have a business yet, listen to yesterday's episode,

and let's get something up and we're cranking for you. So then you can start geeking out and going deeper on these things. Um, but, uh, if you've got something happening, like start thinking about this, how do we like, this is a, this is a world we create, right? You think about, think about just the comic books, like DC and Marvel, and think about how many movies are in that franchise and what's happening. And it's been fun to watch. Like I was never a comic book guy growing up, but man, I've been obsessed with the movies because it's so fun to see

just what they've done inside these universes and how they bring all the characters together. And it's exciting. There's a lot to learn from it that we can apply back to our businesses. So, all right, guys, that said, this is one of my longer podcasts. I didn't know I was going to talk about it and I got excited.

So there you go. Appreciate you all guys. Now it's time to start crafting and creating your own universes. That said, I appreciate you. If you love this podcast, you're getting anything from it, please go to iTunes and subscribe. We're going to be doing a lot of new stuff here in the very near future with the new channel and I'm excited and love to have your guys' feedback. So appreciate you all. Have an amazing day, night, wherever you are in the world, and we'll talk to you soon.

Want more marketing secrets? If so, then go get your copies of my two bestselling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets and you can get a free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called Dotcom Secrets and you can get your free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called Dot Com Secrets, and you can get your free copy at dotcomsecrets.com. Inside these two books, you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest growing non-VC backed SaaS startup company in the world.